LITTLE ROCK — The U.S. Supreme Court has denied a request by Chevie Kehoe to have the high court consider reversing his conviction in the 1996 slaying of three members of an Arkansas family as part of a plot to establish a whites-only nation.

Kehoe was convicted in a federal trial in 1999 with Danny Lee of Yukon, Okla., where they faced capital murder, racketeering and conspiracy charges. Kehoe was sentenced to life in prison and Lee was given a death sentence, which he is still appealing.

Last year, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals turned away an appeal by Kehoe in which he claimed his counsel was incompetent for trying to get blacks on his jury under the reasoning that they would be less likely to sentence Kehoe to execution.